Counting the minutes!

Jingle, jingle I hear keys!!  Literally we are down to hours until we are new home owners again!!!  Our pre-settlement meeting went very well and just made us even more excited to move into our new house.  Every time they pulled out the envelope containing our house keys my husband and I just instantly got huge grins on our faces.... It was like the magic golden envelope......It's just so amazing!!!  Our realtor and my father in law both attended the walk through at the house and both were extremely impressed with the workmanship, quality,  and service that comes with a ryan home.  We did have some minor things that still need to be attended to but overall everything went very well.  Lucky for you we've got a lot going on today so I don't have time to write much.  Looking forward to having some post closing pictures for you soon.......just can't wait to finally get moved in and  somewhat unpacked and settled!!

We'll write more soon!! 

TWO DAYS!!!

I am almost beyond words to describe my excitement this week!  THURSDAY WE MOVE INTO OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!!!! I feel like a little kid again anticipating something great like going to Disney, or getting a  new bike, I just can't wait for the day to finally get here......all that planning and anticipating and dreaming will finally become a reality in a matter of 2 days!!  Its just so awesome and I am so ready to begin our new life in our new home!!

Looking back from where we started it seems like its been such a long adventure, but then I look at the blog pictures and am amazed at truly how fast this house was built.  If you think about it, we started this adventure back in February but the house itself wasn't started until the end of May and now its done.....I'm just so ready to finally move and  live the excitement we've been  building all these months!!

Updates.....uh.....well....hmmm..... it doesn't seem like there are any.  Actually, our shutters were put up at the end of last week, and some minor concerns regarding various things with the house have been adjusted (the garage door was not level when opened....guess a spring needed adjustment, we had an issue with a broken cabinet that they fixed, and there was a doorway that was extremely slanted (so it wasn't square)..it too has been adjusted).   On Friday our two trees were planted and the lawn hydro seeded. The unfortunate thing now is our lawn is no longer hydro seeded.  We had some pretty nasty storms blow through on Saturday.  Our new neighbors gave us a call and mentioned the lawn was gone so we went to check it out and sure enough the heavy rains and wind washed it all away......it was a mess!  We haven't talked to our PM yet but I'm sure he'll have it fixed before we move in so I'm not overly worried.  Now my only worries seem to be getting packed and coordinating the move in time.  We have to be out of our rental by Friday, we close on Thursday at 11am and  the moving company wasn't available to move our stuff until 1pm on Thursday....so its a pretty tight time frame.  Did I mention we're not fully packed yet at the rental, we have three little ones to watch and my husband and I are working until Thursday, and our jobs and our new house is an  hour commute one way from where we currently live......YIKES!!  It will all be fine though....I have faith and there are only so many hours in the day and so much one can do.......we all will survive.....I just may not have any hair by the time I'm done...ha!

So for the most part its been pretty uneventful at the new house.....its just sitting there waiting for us to move in!  I thought I would have some of the pictures I took over the weekend to post but unfortunately my husband downloaded them already to my computer which my son dropped today and broke, and now I don't have any on the memory card to download to my husbands computer.   I'm sure I'll have some soon though but it may be after we move in!!  Just pray for us that our closing and move all goes smoothly.

well I'm tired, and I apparently can't type very well tonight and I still have some packing to do and things that need my attention.  I just had to express some of my excitement and let you a ll know we're still around.  Can you believe it?....WE MOVE IN 2 DAYS.....ahhhh I just can't wait!!

Talk to you all post-move :-)!!

Ta Da!

So here's the happy couple now that our siding has been changed!  Actually this week my husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.  Most people plan some romantic evening out and about......us, well we've been so stressed between balancing our complicated work schedules, building a house, living in a short term rental (aka the Frat House....its student housing!), and raising 3 toddlers that we've been lucky to even see each other let alone plan a romantic anything.  So our perfect plan to celebrate the precious event......go check out our new house!!  Ha!

Actually, we did make some plans....we went to Home Depot and bought 2 hunter ceiling fans and the pendant lights for above the gourmet island......I know we are so pathetic!!  But that was our idea of fun....dreaming of plans for the new house without having 3 little ones screaming and making a scene in the store.  Those of you with little ones I know can appreciate this!!  We did however, also have a VERY nice dinner at a restaurant we've never been to before so we did make our evening a little more special than I've made it sound to be......its just funny to me that everything in our life right now seems to revolve around our new house....which we are, as you can tell, very excited about!!

Lets see....news for the week......well......

OUR NEW SIDING IS DONE!! So looking at this picture compared to the picture with the "pink" siding you probably can't see any difference.....but let me just say there is a big difference.  There is NO pink!!  Many of our neighbors have commented how much nicer it looks and how they like it.  The most important though is us and, WE LOVE IT!!  So glad we made the change.......I don't feel angry or sick when I see our house now......I feel calm and happy!! Its made a world of difference and this truly is a more accurate representation of the color we originally selected prior to the supplier change.  Our PM said the bottom shutters will be added next week as the brackets broke when they removed them for the new siding job....otherwise everything looks fantastic and we are sooooo happy!!

What else.....on our Anniversary visit we met the cleaning lady who cleans our house prior to us moving in.  She was very nice and gave us some insight on what she does and if she notices anything in her work she automatically reports it to our PM so it is taken care of prior to move in.  This was also the first time we were able to see our floors without the protective paper covering on it and we are really happy with the result.  Everything compliments each other very well.  The only room we don't really love the floor in is our master bath...it has kind of a yellow and pink cast to it but I think its partially a combination of the lighting and lack of color and decoration.  I think once we add our own touches, shower curtain, towels etc. it will take away that yellow cast we see.  For the most part everything looks pretty much ready for move in....needs a little cleaning and the outside needs some finishing work but otherwise it looks GREAT!!  SO excited.....

Our PM said he will have the C of O probably on Wednesday, but he has some finishing work to do that was pushed back due to the new siding so our closing has been pushed back to August 18th......which is seriously just in the nick of time as we need to be out of our rental by the 19th!!  AHhhhhh Streessss!!  It will all work out though.  We also went and bought our mailbox this week.....ohhhh I know so exciting but actually its been a lot of fun to go out and pick things to make the house all our own. Next on the list is some window treatments, and new furniture......I'm sure that is going to take a little time though.  I need some time to really decide what I want and what colors I want and what will work well with 3 little kids abusing it...ha!  So, below I've posted some pictures taken this week.  Can't wait until I can post the pictures taken when its finally ours......its so close....I can't wait!!

....more to come soon!!

New Siding Delivery!!!!!!!

Perfect timing! So initially we were going to take the kids to the museum for an evening of family fun, but on our way there we found the museum was closed :-( so what should one do when your first plan doesn't work out......obviously go check out your new house! :-)

Well as we previously mentioned in our past post our siding issue had been positively resolved with Ryan but we were hesitant to give any further details than that.......well our new siding arrived tonight!! Good-bye pink peach pit (aka Autumn Beige) and hello Sandy Tan! After working the issue up through the ranks, Ryan has allowed us to pick a new siding color and for a nominal additional cost will re-side our house. Although we felt we shouldn't have had to pay anything since we weren't the ones who changed suppliers and weren't given the option to select a different color, the additional cost was nothing compared to what it would cost us to re-side the house ourselves and we are just happy we don't have to live with the fleshy pink house for the next 30 years. I have to say though the picture below makes the house look great but everyone....and I mean EVERYONE has commented about our "peachy, pink" house.....so its obvious it was an issue. Even the siding delivery guy tonight said it looked pink!!

  So our new siding arrived just as we were pulling up to the house! I have to admit I'm still a nervous wreck about the new color but I think we'll be so much happier (I'll actually be glad to see the house and not cringe at the sight of pink) and I'm excited to finally see it go up on the house. Apparently, our complaint must have caused a change throughout Ryan, we were told by our sales rep that a hold was placed on anyone who had picked this color for their house and they had to go see it on a house and sign off again before selecting the color. Our sales rep had mentioned many people had made color changes after seeing it. However, according to our neighbor tonight, they said their sales rep told them it was taken off the option list all together......so must be we weren't the only ones having issues with the color....Ryan must not have liked the end result either to discontinue the color from their options. Can anyone confirm or deny that Autum beige was taken out of the siding choices?

Well what else is going on.....hmmmm CARPET!!! I have carpet and I LOVE IT!! We snuck into the house tonight and so much has been done. The microwave is in above the stove, our stove is almost installed, the dishwasher is installed, all our door handles and locks are on, shelving is all done, the walls have all been repainted, the step to the front door has been added, the front light has been put up, the toilet paper holders and towel bars are in, the AC is done, the basement has been powerwashed and cleaned, the driveway has been stoned and the yard graded......the house is practically done....well with the exception of our new siding!!

We were told we will be closing on August 12th but they said depending on the new siding project it could push closing out a couple days....which is ok with us since we're getting new siding! We should find out later this week if our date has changed. I just can't wait to finally move in and its so close now!! Guess that means I need to get a hussle on packing up the rental house and selecting a moving company. We've gotten quotes from 6 different companies in the last week. We've always moved ourselves in the past but given its been so hot, and we already used our ask for help cards with all our friends, and we're just plain stressed we thought hiring a moving company would be so much easier.....let them worry about moving us and that will free us up to worry about all the other things we need to do when we move in.

Well, I guess thats it for tonight. Guess I got a little carried away with words but just wanted to give you the siding update and express our excitement on all that has been done in the last week or so. I'm sure we'll have more later in the week and hopefully new pictures of the new siding as well.....